Beyond the sum of its parts: a scoping review on complex mental health care needs

care needs "lingering" in primary and social care [2].Care providers report feeling frustrated, powerless and overburdened, stating that they have little impact on improving the access to care for these people while also experiencing shortcomings in delivering adequate care [2].In parallel, inpatient units report that patients with complex needs "get stuck" at the ward, because of a lack of appropriate and accessible housing and community services [7], or become "revolving-door-patients" with frequent readmissions [2].Not only those with complex care needs themselves and care providers are affected: family members and significant others at times feel stuck "between no help and coercion" 8 with complex unmet needs escalating into crises, again because of a lack of appropriate available care [2,9,10].With involuntary admissions on the rise [11,12], their experiences often seem validated.The need for appropriate responses to these challenges is evident; however, a preliminary literature search reviews in JBI Evidence Synthesis, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, PubMed and PROSPERO made clear that consensus on what is meant by complex mental Van Suetendael Luna